Private Eye reveals £20m of Cumbrian land and property bought by offshore firms
MORE than £20 million of prime Cumbrian land and property was bought by offshore firms between 2005 and 2014, according to Private Eye magazine.
Properties purchased by offshore companies in Cumbria in the last ten years range from prestigious country estates to a hotel and a nursing home.
The countries in which Cumbrian property is now registered range from the British Virgin Islands in the Caribbean to Samoa in the South Pacific.
One of the largest and most notable Cumbrian land holdings to be owned abroad is the famous Lilymere Estate at Sedburgh, which is now up for sale.
The estate’s most recent owner was solicitor Timothy Schools, who according to Private Eye registered it in the far-flung Marshall Islands in the Pacific in 2013 to a firm called Kompali AG for the price of £3million.
He in turn had acquired the property from a Belgian entrepreneur who had also registered it offshore.
Mr Schools, who was struck off in 2014 by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal for “failing to act with integrity”, demolished the existing stone-built six-bedroom house on the estate and started building his own eight-bedroom replacement.
But he ran out of money mid-way through the project leaving the half-built property without a roof, windows or doors.
The 700-acre estate was repossessed and is now back up for sale for £3million, with potential buyers warned that completing Mr Schools’ grand plans for the house may cost another £1.5million.
According to Private Eye’s investigation, other prestigious Cumbrian properties to go into foreign-registered ownership since 2005 include the Dove Nest Estate at Ambleside.
The estate was registered in November 2011 to a firm in the British Virgin Islands called Lysande Holdings Ltd for a price of £4,344,685.
Meanwhile the landmark Shap Wells Hotel was registered to an Isle of Man-based company in June 2011 for the price of £3million.
Private Eye’s research says the most expensive land transaction involving offshore ownership in Cumbria over the last ten years came in March 2014 when Phase 2 of the Low Mill Business Park in Ulverston was registered as being owned in Guernsey – for a value of £11,900,000.
The magazine, whose research was based on official land registry data and freedom of information requests, has also revealed a number of much smaller offshore property purchases in Cumbria.
Among them is the purchase of land at Cartmell Fell in March 2009 registered to the British Virgin Islands for the price of £85,000 by two companies: Lavington Participation Corporation and Duncraig Investment Corporation.
Land at Solway Industrial Estate in Maryport was registered by Rockford Holdings to Samoa in July 2008 for the sum of £300,000.
Meanwhile, in March 2012, the Barrack Court Nursing Home in Low Hesket was purchased for £980,000 and registered in Gibralter to a company called St Clair International Ltd.
Private Eye’s Cumbrian research is part of a wider attempt to log every land and property sale to offshore companies across England and Wales from 2005 to last year.
The magazine, which has uploaded its data onto a searchable map on its website, said:
“Property investment and development companies routinely use offshore corporate vehicles to own major buildings to achieve capital gains tax and stamp duty advantages.
“The map includes properties owned by any overseas company, not just those based in tax havens.”
To see the map, go to www.private-eye.co.uk/registry
